Bull and PowerLeader enter into an OEM relationship to jointly address the high-end server market in the People’s Republic of China

NovaScale® servers, based on the Intel® Itanium® 2 Processor Family, will be the foundation for PowerLeader’s range of high-end, scalable servers

Bull and PowerLeader are announcing today that they have signed a Memorandum of Understanding leading to a 5-year OEM agreement for PowerLeader to integrate Bull’s NovaScale server technology and products into its own PowerScale server offerings, dramatically expanding its product portfolio in the high-end server market.

Under the terms of the agreement, PowerLeader will have access to Bull’s complete NovaScale product line-up, ranging from 2-socket systems to 32-socket enterprise computers, that it will integrate, customize and tailor as part of its product lines, under its own brand name and sell into the global PRC market.

The agreement covers NovaScale current products as well as all future NovaScale products. Notably, PowerLeader will be able to announce servers supporting the forthcoming version of the Intel® Itanium® 2 processor, code named ‘Montecito’. Bull will be providing technical, marketing and sales training to PowerLeader, as well as engineering and support services.

PowerLeader will be expanding its customer demonstration centre by initially setting up a 16-socket system that will be one of the largest Symmetrical Multiprocessor (SMP) servers installed in the PRC and that will be available for customers to test, prototype, size and optimize their applications.

Initial market focus for the partnership will be High Performance Computing, as well as business applications such as large-scale database, ERP applications, and Java-based applications.

"We wanted to maintain our leadership in the PRC market in offering a complete range of scalable, high-performance servers. Power Scale servers will ideally complement our product line-up, bringing more performance and headroom to our most demanding customers, backed by Bull’s reputation and support for mission-critical solutions”, said ZhuMao Ma, Vice-President of PowerLeader.

Announced in March 2003, the Bull NovaScale® server range is based upon its FAME architecture (Flexible Architecture for Multiple Environments), and the Intel® Itanium® Processor Family. Using market-standard building blocks, the FAME architecture represents a technological breakthrough for high-end, mission-critical servers, delivering significant improvements in price/performance.